Rule →
General admiralty and maritime law has traditionally provided for
the general availability of punitive damages for reckless conduct,
but punitive damages are not available under the Oil Pollution Act.

The Plaintiff blew
it in failing to properly raising claims under the Main State law.
Therefore he was only permitted to pursue its OPA claims. So the
only issue was damages and an issue about a jury trial.

This decision
doesn’t tell us whether you can or cannot have punitive damages
under state law, because the plaintiff failed to claim under it.

Facts

Appellant: South
Port Marine is a family-owned marina located on a cove in Portland
Harbor, Maine.

The marine is mainly
for recreational vessels.

In the winter of 96
South Port’s owners planned to dredge the marina and parts of the
surrounding cove to allow access by larger boats.

Appellee: Gulf Oil
is a Massachusetts based petroleum company.

It operates a
distribution facility on Portland Harbor where petroleum products
are pumped into barges for transportation to other ports.

Gulf Oil was pumping
gasoline into a barge owned and operated by Boston Towing at the
time of the incident.

A Boston Towing crew
member left a barge that was been filled with gasoline unattended
which made the gasoline overflowed and flowing into Portland Harbor.

Between 23,000 and
30,000 gallons were spilled into the water.

The foam of the
docks began to disintegrate causing the docks to sink and some
electrical posts fell off the docks into the water.

South Port argument:
It alleged damages falling into: extensive property damage, lost
profits and “other economic losses” including loss of goodwill
and business stress. The amount of $1 mill.

South Port filed a
complaint under the OPA and demanded trial by jury.

The court also
decided that punitive damages were unavailable under the OPA.

The jury returned a
veridict in favor of South Port for $181,964 for damages for injury
to property, $110,000 for lost profits and $300,000 for injury to
good will and business stress.

South Port appealed
challenging the refusal of the court to give punitive damages and
the sufficiency of the evidence. Appellees have cross-appealed the
decision of granting trial by jury.

Rationale

Trial by jury
Issue

Issue: whether South
Port’s OPA claim is analogous to a cause of action in admiralty in
1791, to which no right to trial by jury would apply or to a cause
of action at law which carries the Seventh Amendment guarantee.

In 1791 South Port
would have brought its claim for damages to its marina under the
common law rather than in admiralty. Thus it is proper to use a
jury trial.

Although the
thrust of the amendment was to preserve the right to jury trial as
it existed in 1791, the seventh amendment also applies to actions
brought to enforce statutory rights that are analogous to
common-law causes of action rodianrilyt dcided in English law
courts in the late 18th century, as opposed to those
customarily heard by the courts of equity or admiralty.

Locality test
/ whether it’s of admiralty jurisdiction:

Whether the tort
occurred wholly on navigable waters. And if objects served a
navigational function.

In this case the
docks were moored to a fix location and served no navigational
function. Thus are “extensions of the land”, consequently a tort
that causes damage to them doesn’t occur “wholly on the
navigable waters” and would have constituted an action at law,
rather than in admiralty, in the late 18th century.

Therefore, South
Port’s OPA claim is analogous to a claim under the common law at
the time of the Seventh Amendment’s ratification in 1791 and that
South Port was entitled to trial by jury.

The claims would
not be of admiralty and therefore would have a right to jury trial
because in 1971 the dock was an extension of land, therefore it was
not in admiralty jurisdiction.

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